Day 15 San Bol to Itero de la Vega 26 km
Walking into Burgos was grueling. The trail was through an industrial area, and we couldn´t find our way to the promised track along the river. The city is gorgeous, once you find the old area, and the cathedral is spectacular. We had dinner then went to the pilgrim service. We saw nothing but a small side chapel, as there is a charge for wandering the church. It just doesn´t seem right. But though there was so much promise, it was hard adapting to a big city, and frustrating trying to find food, a supermercado, postcards, stamps - we found nothing except dinner. The albergue is huge, with 300 beds, and is brand new - a great design. The number of people in the albergue and the streets were overwhelming.
In contrast, the walk out of Burgos was lovely. Then we hit the highways, and we spent a lot of time wandering around the highways and railroad tracks. Once we hit the country away from traffic, we began to enjoy the scenery once again. We arrived at San Bol about 3 pm, to get the last 2 beds - there are only 12! The albergue is situated about 100 m off the track, in a glade of trees. There is an ancient spring, said to prevent any further foot problems if you bathe your feet in it. I touched my toes in. There were 2 Canadians - us, 2 Quebecois, 3 Italian, one Czech, 2 Germans, and 2 Spaniards. We were miles from anywhere, so it was a chance to really relax, catch up on my journal ( no internet or wifi there), and plan some blog posts. The hospitalera cooked a community dinner - 13 around a round table, and we had chicken paella, cooked from scratch by her in a huge paella pan, green salad, and vanilla pudding, with bread and wine - accomodation was 5 € and dinner was 7€. A thoroughly relaxingevening, ending with a reiki treatment.
Today we climbed up and down the famous hill out of Castrojerez.Because it was so hot, it was a tough afternoon out of Castrojerez, but we are in a fine albergue, though nothing special yet, with the prospect of friends we have remet today. Life is good. This is a Roman bridge we crossed just before we arrived.
